


A Better Kind of Paradise

by MinewtInParadise (JadenR5Fam)



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: M/M, The Death Cure Spoilers, and minho is a smart cookie he can figure shit out, but then there's no plot and you can't just break that to someone, i would have had newt just tell minho, it's too sudden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 03:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3554360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadenR5Fam/pseuds/MinewtInParadise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minho wakes up in a strange place, and one of the first people he sees is Newt. When Minho doesn't understand where they are, Newt leads him around to see if he can figure it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Better Kind of Paradise

Minho woke up under a tree in a place he didn’t recognize. It was sunny and bright, and all around him there were happy, laughing people. He scanned the faces, and noticed that he didn’t know a single one of these people.  
Wait.  
Someone was coming towards him.  
The person looked familiar, but they was still far away, so Minho was unable to place them. They were tall and lean, and they had a small frame. As they got closer, Minho noticed they had long, blonde hair and strong-looking arms. Minho knew only one person who fit that description.  
Newt.  
Minho couldn’t even stop himself from running into Newt’s arms. Newt just accepted it with a small smile, and held the shorter boy tightly.  
“Hey, Min.” Newt said. Minho hadn’t even realized how much he’d missed hearing Newt’s voice until right then.  
“Hey, Newt. I missed you. What’s going on? Where are we?” Minho asked.  
Newt frowned. “You don’t know?”  
Minho looked confused. “No.”  
“Alright, before I tell you, let me show you around a little, and you see if you can figure it out. Okay?” Newt asked. He didn’t want to break this news to Minho suddenly and out of the blue. He would give him clues, one or two at a time. Minho was smart; he should be able to put two and two together before Newt revealed anything.  
“Okay.”  
Newt took Minho’s hand. It was a familiar gesture, though the boys had only done it when no one was around to see. Newt lead Minho past several groups of people running through grass. They all seemed to be happy and playing some type of game, which seemed odd to Minho, given the state of the world. One of the people called out “hey, Newt!”. Newt simply lifted a hand in greeting.  
“...That looked like-” Minho began.  
“Winston. Yeah. Let’s keep going.” Newt said softly, noting the confusion on Minho’s face.  
“Isn’t he-” Minho stopped himself there, shaking his head. “Lead on, angel.”  
The pet name caused Newt to hesitate for a moment, but not long enough for Minho to notice. Newt led the older boy along, pointing out certain things along the way.  
As they walked, Minho started thinking about something he’d noticed a few minutes ago.. Newt no longer had a limp, and he was no longer showing any symptoms of the Flare. Something was up. There was no way either of those things could have just magically been healed. And Winston. Wasn’t he dead? Was Newt dead? Was Minho dead? No, no, he couldn’t be. Could he?  
Someone ran by, and seemed to throw a salute in Newt’s direction. It looked like...Ben.  
Ben was dead. The Grievers had taken him back in the Maze. There’s no way he could have made it out of there. Was there?  
The next person Minho saw, or thought he saw, was Alby. The boy was sitting in some grass. He seemed to be doing nothing, which was off for Alby. Newt called out a “hey!” to him, making Minho even more convinced of who it was. But Alby had sacrificed himself to the Grievers. This had to be a dream. Didn’t it?  
The last people Minho saw were Teresa and Chuck. Teresa seemed to be teaching Chuck something, but Minho couldn’t tell what it was from where he was standing. Something was definitely wrong. Minho had seen both of them die, and here they were, unscathed. He stopped short.  
Newt immediately turned to look at him.  
“Newt. I need you to tell me something now.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Am I dead? Or is this a dream? Because I’ve seen five different dead people that I know, and I need to know I’m not going freaking crazy.”  
“Six.” Newt said.  
“Huh?”  
“Six different dead people that you know. I’m dead, too. And, yeah, you’re dead.”  
“You-you died? When?” Minho asked quietly, and with complete disbelief showing on his face.  
“Tommy shot me in the head a few days after you guys left me at the Crank Palace.”  
“ _**What?!**_ That shuck-”  
“I told him to. Matter of fact, I begged him to do it.”  
“But- why? Don’t tell me if I already know. I can’t take that.” Minho said. He’d known Newt for two years, and he’d seen the boy at one of his lowest points: after he’d jumped off one of the Maze walls. He knew how shitty Newt’s life had been, at least post-memory-erasure. He also knew how much Newt had hated his life. Minho hated hearing that. He had always been there for Newt, but he couldn’t stand hearing how his baby was hurting and knowing that he couldn’t do a thing about it.  
“You know part of it. The other part was that I didn’t want to live out the rest of my life suffering. I didn’t want to turn into a bloody cannibal monster. I told him to kill me. But you know what I regret?”  
“What?”  
“I regret what I said to him before he did it. I told him the situation we were in was his fault, and that I hated him. I hope he knows I didn’t mean it. I called him ‘Tommy’ all the way through. No one calls a person they actually hate by a nickname, right?” Newt said, beginning to choke up slightly.  
“Not that I know of. I’m sure he knows. But he didn’t tell me he did that.”  
“He probably didn’t want to tell you how he killed your best friend.”  
“Oh, are we just best friends now? And, you know what? Knowing you were dead would actually have felt better than just thinking you were suffering. I hate even the thought of you not being okay in every way.”  
“No, we’re not just best friends.” Newt took both of Minho’s hands. “I love you, Min. So much. Nothing could change that.”  
“I love you, too, Newt.” Minho put his arms around Newt’s neck and leaned towards the taller boy. It wasn’t two seconds before they were kissing. Nothing had felt that good in a long time.  
After they broke the kiss, Minho said: “So, we can still kiss in the afterlife. Wonder what else we can do.” And raised an eyebrow.  
“ _Minho!_ ”  
“What? I’m kidding. What I really want is to spend time with you. I missed you so much.”  
“I missed you, too. But I got to spend more time around you than you got to spend around me. The real me, at least. I’m sorry for everything I said when I had the Flare. I know I hurt you.”  
“Yeah, you did. But it’s all okay now.”  
“Min? Can I ask you something?” Newt seemed nervous.  
“Anything, angel. Wait, no, is that pet name weird now? You know, since we’re...dead?”  
“No. It’s special to me. Don’t stop using it. But, um, how did you die?”  
Minho hesitated. “I got pushed down, and hit my head. They tried to go for help, but it was too late. I bled out. It was an accident.”  
“Hmm. I really don’t think it was your time.”  
“Yeah, well, I don’t think it was yours, either, you shank.”  
“EIther way I’m glad to see you again.”  
“So am I.”  
The two boys walked on, hand in hand, completely content just being near each other. Minho thought of Paradise as he walked. That had been good, but this was a different kind of Paradise. A better one.


End file.
